[Old School]

Here's an even worse case of how the government unjustly takes property. Suppose you own rights to a valuable block of coal reserves and the state decides to build a road on the surface above the coal.

To protect the road, the state decides that only 35% of the coal in the area beneath and adjacent to the road can be mined and also decrees that whoever mines the coal must fill the mined out area with material such as concrete to further ensure that the roof does not collapse and damage the road.

Because of the restriction placed on mining, it is no longer economically feasible to mine the coal. In other words, the state has taken away the value of your property without compensating you for the loss. Amazingly, the courts have ruled that this practice does not constitute depriving you of property, so you are not entitled to compensation.

State and federal regulations deprive individual of property rights everyday in ways that most people never think about. The most obvious cases involve condemning surface property but the less obvious taking of confiscation or sterilization of property rights usually receive little attention by the general public.

I have know of the government arguing with property/mineral owners over how much of the coal was mineable/merchantable, but that's the first I've ever heard of them requiring the mining voids to be filled with concrete.

I had a spat with a coal company and the power company because I told them over the phone they could use my land to put up a power pole and they agreed to give me a kickback on my power bill.
They ended up driving their trucks where I specifically told them not to and it caused a sewage line to bust.
They acted like they didn't want to pay to have it fixed and talked to my wife like a dog while she was home alone and 5 of em came in the house.

I took a chainsaw to the pole before they got the lines on it..
I got a check for the damages

I don't blame you at all, I would have done the same. :Thumbs: